Fight or flee… That’s how many people feel about their jobs. But there is at least one other common emotion in this context. And that is somewhere between boredom and a need for adventure. Let’s call it “delight.” In this series, we have been highlighting the many reasons that executives come to us to clarify their career objectives and find that next, ideal position. Three decades and literally thousands of satisfied clients bear testimony to our success. Fight, Flight, or Delight?
One reason for this success is that we look at the whole person when clarifying career objectives. Wee look at not just the targeted title, compensation, and geography. Whether they are executives, lawyers, people transitioning out of the military, or other professionals seeking support—our Clarity Program© uniquely facilitates this process.
So what about “delight?”
Let me tell you about Antonio. He’s a government engineer in California. Antonio has been active in state and municipal water and energy infrastructure projects for more than two decades. He certainly feels safe about his job and his retirement plan. But he also feels extremely under-challenged and under-utilized. In a word, bored. So he reached out to us to consider how and where he might be able to enter the private sector in some more interesting role.
Through the targeting step in our career change process (the Clarity Program©), we helped Antonio consider his short-term requirements in terms of financial independence, career success, family and relationships, and fitness and health.
And thereafter we helped him craft a personal strategic plan that will allow him to enter a tech company with solid credentials that demonstrate the transferability of his experience from the public to the private and highly entrepreneurial tech sector.
Antonio is just finishing the Clarity Program© and moving on to the packaging stage of our career change process, but like more than 90% of our clients who rate Clarity “excellent,” Antonio would likely agree with another client, Kamran Mashayekh, who said the following about his Clarity Program© experience:
“I would not tinker with perfection!!! The methodology of CP is a precise science. Mr. Henderson [his Clarity Coach] was sublime in the manner in which he executed the CP. He is an adept listener and allows the client to talk until the client is able to discover the answers that are already within them.
Mr. Henderson is an invaluable asset to TBG. I am exceedingly clear regarding my goals on a going forward basis. That is to a large extent due to Mr. Henderson’s patient and sterling execution of the CP.”
In fact, as I think about it, some clients actually feel “re-born” as a result of the Clarity Program©—released from a cycle of pursuing jobs that perhaps did not really meet their needs. I’ll tell you about another such client in a future article who realized that he did not have the skills and experience to reach his dream job in one leap, but that he tactically need another position in between—a stepping-stone job—to acquire those skills before obtaining his true objective in the C-Suite. This realization truly inspired him.
So, there is more than just fighting and fleeing to your professional experience. Perhaps you should not settle for anything less than delight. That’s what we’re all about: delighting our clients.
Peter Irish
CEO
The Barrett Group
